The present invention pertains to a method of diagnosing patients having chronic pain as medically unexplained symptoms, or somatization as defined in Taber's Cyclopedic Medical Dictionary, F. A. Davis Co., Philadelphia, 1993, in order to assess a probability of relief of such pain through medical treatment. In particular, the present invention is a self-reporting diagnostic test that identifies and quantifies certain psychological and behavioral, or clinical factors. These clinical factors can affect medical treatment outcome for a patient sensitive to somatization. Any identified effect of such a condition on potential medical treatment outcome will have a critical bearing on a decision by a physician to operate or otherwise medically treat a patient, and on predicting problems that could occur post-operatively or after treatment.
Failure in predicting outcome for treatment aimed at pain relief has been one of the most costly problems facing healthcare delivery systems today. It is estimated that ten percent (10%) of medical services in the United States are delivered to patients with no evidence of organic disease, and the cost of this care is estimated to be twenty billion dollars ($20,000,000,000) annually. The cost of failing to detect such high-risk patients are staggering, as twenty percent (20%) of all patients account for eighty percent (80%) of the available dollars for treatment.